To All

[a_better_man]

I have a query for the masses, if you'll take a moment or two and indulge me.

Tell me about animals from your world. Or your favorite of the animals from your world. Or the most interesting. I'm curious. Friends in the Horizon have shown me critters I've never even heard of before, and even been kind enough to create one or two for my domain. And I want more. I want a vast menagerie of amazing creatures.

I've got plenty of animals I know well - foxes, badgers, rabbits, sheep - and some I don't think exist outside of this world that I've seen in Thorne. But so many of all you fine and lovely people come from amazing and vastly different worlds and I would be honored by a contribution to my little project.

Of which there is to be more than just a showcase of odd animals, and I will share with all when it's finished. But for right now...

It's all about the animals.

Comments

[princessvegas]

Narwhales are like whales but with a unicorn horn. They stick the horn up through holes in ice, and I think they fight with them too.

Platypus are like a bunch of other animals all smushed together. Body of like, maybe a beaver or an otter? They're water animals, they have little flippers and a beaver tail. But then they have duck bills instead of a nose. And they lay eggs, but they're mammals.

Pangolins are... I barely know how to describe them. They're these little guys, they walk on all fours but they stand on their back legs when they're still. They're covered in scales, but they're still mammals. At least I'm pretty sure they are. But when they stand up, they put their little hands together like they're too shy to ask a girl to dance. Super cute.

Kangaroos are like, six feet tall. They stand on their back legs and tails, and they jump to move around. They have real cute faces but they got arms like the most muscular man you ever saw. And they have a big pocket on their belly, the babies live in the pocket until they get too big. They only live in one place in my world. I think they used to catch them and train them to box people, a long long time ago.

You know what? I'll send you a mogwai. There isn't anything you need to know about it that you can't understand from seeing it.

[ Much, much later tonight, a teacup-sized unicorn will trot up to Mat's domain, pulling a little wagon. In the wagon is a very cute little guy, and a handwritten note that only says "His name is Gizmo."

As soon as he can, that tiny unicorn gallops away. It's not foreshadowing at all. ]

[a_better_man]

Is a whale a sort of fish?

I like the sound of a platypus, though! I think I'll try and create one. And kangaroos sound fantastic! What a marvelous sort of critter.

Well thank you, that's kind of you. Appreciated.

[princessvegas]

Kinda? They're not fish, they're mammals, but they do live in the ocean. They're huge, like the smallest ones are still like ten feet long and weigh hundreds of pounds. The biggest kind of whale is the largest animal that ever existed in my world, called blue whales.

Narwhals aren't that big, but they're still really big.

[a_better_man]

Fuck me! Biggest animal I've ever seen's a damned bull. They're really that big?

I don't think I've got space for one of those fellows!

[princessvegas]

Blue whales are like 100 feet long, they weigh hundreds of thousands of pounds. And like, yeah, narwhals and other whales are way smaller, but you probably shouldn't make one? Cause you'd need a whole ocean for 'em to be comfortable, and you shouldn't take up an ocean's worth of the Horizon.

Go nuts on kangaroos and shit, though.

[a_better_man]

No that would be cruel to even a magically constructed creature, and an ocean would be rude to neighbors to say the least. I do have a pond, maybe a little sort of thing for the pond. About the size of an oilfish, they're only a few feet long.

Oh I intend to! It's a whole little patch of creation that I can fashion as I want, and I want to fill it with wonders.

[princessvegas]

You should make it a koi pond. They're really pretty.

[a_better_man]

And here I must admit my ignorance again.

Your world is full of things that are a mystery to me, it seems.

But I love a good mystery.

[princessvegas]

You said you already have the pond, right? I can come by tomorrow and make it for you. I don't think a description can really get across what a koi pond should be, at least not without knowing what koi are.

[a_better_man]

I do! A pond and a little lake, but the little lake surrounds my 'house'. There's some ducks and otters in there already.

I'd be honored to entertain you in my domain!

[princessvegas]

[ He's still getting a mogwai. But she'll get rid of the gremlin for him tomorrow -- she somewhat doubts that, in the panic of seeing the change, he'll have the thought process necessary to simply think it away.

You're welcome, Mat. ]